BIO: William Alexander REAMS, Clearfield County, PA
 
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From Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania,
and Representative Citizens, by Roland D. Swoope, Jr.,
Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, 1911, pages 642 - 644.
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  WILLIAM ALEXANDER REAMS, who is one of the best known citizens of Decatur 
township, Clearfield county, Pa., where he has lived since he was nine years 
old, was born December 25, 1836, at Philipsburg, Center county, Pa., in a 
building on the present site of the Coal Exchange Hotel.  His parents were John 
and Frances (Karney) Reams.
  Both parents of Mr. Reams were born in Penn's Valley, Lycoming county, Pa., 
where they married.  After the birth of two children, they moved to Philipsburg.  
The present thriving borough was then but a small settlement and there was not 
enough work in the place to keep an active man, like John Reams, profitably and 
continuously employed, therefore he accepted work as far away as Warrior's Mark, 
in Huntingdon county, and walked the distance to and from.  In 1845 he moved to 
Decatur township, Clearfield county, and took up an improved claim, where the 
old brick plant was located, near Osceola Mills, where he had about fifty acres.  
This land he soon sold but received only $10 in cash, money being exceedingly 
scarce at that time in this section.  He was quite enterprising, however, and he 
next made a line around another fifty-acre claim, at what is now known as 
Hudsonville, and this land he disposed of for $25 to John Gearhart.  The next 
claim he took was one of ninety acres, it being the same on which his son, 
Curtis Reams, now lives.  This place, with the help of his boys, he cleared off, 
destroying timber at that time which, if now standing, would represent a fair 
fortune.  One trouble that the early settlers all experienced was the difficulty 
of protecting their stock from the wild animals that then were numerous in the 
forest, and even human beings were not always safe in the primitive log cabins.  
There was a time when a roaring fire was built in the cabin when John Reams and 
wife and children lay down on their beds of hemlock boughs at night, as the only 
way of preventing the dangerous visits of wolves and panthers.  John Reams and 
wife died and were buried in the Crain cemetery, half a mile from Osceola, in 
Decatur township.
  Eight children were born to John and Frances Reams, as follows:  Samuel, who 
died in infancy; Frederick, who also died young; Lydia, who died in 1910, aged 
ninety years (was the wife of William A. Bloom); Sophia, deceased, who was the 
wife of Andrew Baughman; Curtis, who resided in Decatur township, but died 
Thursday, April 20, 1911, aged 87 years, and was buried beside his wife at 
Osceola; John, who also lives in Decatur township; Mary Ann, now deceased (was 
the wife of Andrew Gardner, of Tyrone); and William Alexander.
  William A. Reams, who was the youngest child of his parents, had but few 
school opportunities in his youth, his education having been mainly acquired 
through reading and contact with others.  He went into the woods to work while 
still young and for many years was in the employ of John M. Chase, and was 
foreman and acted in other capacities.  He also was a pilot on the Susquehanna 
River, a position requiring both physical courage and skill, and rafted from 
Glen Hope to Marietta, Pa., and Peach Bottoms.  He spent twenty-five years on 
the water and during four or five seasons was a cook on the log rafts and 
efficiently performed the duties of this necessary position on log drives that 
went as far as Williamsport.  For the last twenty-four years Mr. Reams has been 
opening fire clay and coal mines for the Philipsburg Coal and Land Company, 
which has its office in New York City, his duties taking him all over Decatur 
township and into Center county.  He was exceedingly active until 1908, since 
when his duties have not been quite so exacting but still earns a very 
substantial salary with the company with which he has been so long identified.
  Mr. Reams was married October 28, 1860, to Miss Sarah Miles, who was born one 
mile from Madera, Pa., in what is now Bigler township, Clearfield county.  She 
is a daughter of Lyman and Margaret (Hite) Miles, her father belonging to an old 
Maine family which came to Clearfield county in pioneer days.  Her mother was 
reared in Huntingdon county, Pa.  To Lyman and Margaret Miles the following 
children were born:  Mary, who married Lemuel Alexander (both now deceased); 
George, who is deceased; Martha, who married John Cathcart (both now deceased); 
Sarah, who is the wife of William A. Reams; and Henry, Edward, Walker and James, 
all of whom live at Madera, Pa.  Mrs. Reams is a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church.  Mr. Reams is nominally a Democrat but is an independent voter 
in local matters and he has been elected at different times to almost all the 
township offices.  He is a member of the order of Golden Eagles.
  Mr. Reams is a very entertaining conversationalist and his recollections of 
conditions and events which at one time prevailed in this section bring pictures 
of those days easily to the imagination.  Reared in a but partially settled 
neighborhood, his boyhood was spent amid surroundings that belong to a long past 
time.  Wild game as well as savage animals abounded in the forest at that time, 
and in his day of youthful strength, he was a great hunter and probably killed 
more deer than any other man in either Clearfield or Center counties.  He 
remembers that he killed his first deer when he was only eleven years of age and 
since then more than 400 have fallen before his accurate marksmanship.  Indeed, 
in those early days, it was necessary for some member of the family to be more 
or less of a hunter, as the meat that sustained life had to be found either in 
the forest or in the streams, which latter, in his day, were full of trout.  He 
also excelled as a fisherman and he tells in an amusing way how his good wife, 
one season, attempted to keep count of the fish he caught, but after her tally 
reached 1,300 she grew tired and perhaps the total would have doubled the 
amount.  Amusements were not wanting, however, in what, to the present 
generation, seems must have been a life of more or less constant toil, but the 
friendly feeling that existed among people at that time brought about much 
sociability and visiting.  The present day commercialism was not known and 
people were more considered for their worth than their worldly possessions.  
Hospitality was universal and a stranger was kindly welcomed, his wants attended 
to and he was sent on his way.  It is but natural that Mr. Reams should recall 
the old days as he looks back so many years and sees the wonderful changes that 
have taken place in every direction.  In all the practical development in his 
immediate neighborhood he has shared and has done his full duty as a citizen.